It blows my mind that they can't even speed bump the desktops. It's clear that it comes from some sort of combination of not giving a shit and Tim Cook's milking of the supply chain for margins. Though to be fair, when each new Intel chip brings marginal performance improvements, why bother updating except for the nerds who have to have the latest architecture? This is why Apple is reduced to trying to come up with HCI improvements like Touch Bar and Force Touch. But not as compellingly as any of the other tech companies. Microsoft is inventing new modalities on the desktop while Apple wishes it would go away. The only Mac users Apple actually needs to care about now are the developers who fuel the iOS platform.

I did notice that (for the first time?) the configuration pages for the MBP prompt you about Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro X -- maybe they're trying to reframe these as the Macs of choice for video/audio pros?

It's idiotic. How many people are working in the mothership now? When is their version of the Pentagon going to be finished? Notice how Jony Ive is always in hiding? It's all bizarre.

So my son loves his Alienware Alpha i3. How the hell hard was it to make that a Mac? All he plays on there is Steam and Battle.net games, which cough, cough, could have run on a Mac. How simple would it have been to have two AppleTVs, one capable of console games (MacTV) and one capable only of iOS games (iOSTV). I mean it's not like this is a cash starved company. They might not have succeeded in 2005 but in 2015 they would have made shitloads of cash. They make reasonable amounts on the current AppleTV and it is a dog, still incapable of 4K a year after the Roku enabled it.

And what about that stupid Apple app for unifying all your content? Great idea in theory, but WITHOUT AMAZON, it sucks. I mean does anybody on earth buy or rent videos from iTunes anymore? Suck it up, diaherrea-cup, you're floundering in your own stink.

A few weeks ago, my iMac's mouse bit the dust. Yesterday I had to warranty exchange my iPad's pen. Toady my iPad Pro's smart keyboard is dead. Hey Apple, all these things are under a year old and they are not well.

Oh speaking of iPad Pro… It's a year old now folks. No upgrade? < blink >H O W H A R D I S I T< /blink >

John Willoughby – November 03, 2016 06:48AMReplyQuoteCyberdyne Systems Customer Support

I'm not convinced that Steve was wrong to appoint Tim. With Steve's passing, Apple needed steady continuity to avoid the appearance of being a rudderless ship. Tim's a genius at supply chain matters. I don't think that vision NEEDS to come from the CEO. But I think that Apple needs somebody other than Jonny Ive driving innovation. I don't think Tim wants that role, and I'm pretty sure that he's not qualified for it.

We need a product guy, a Satya Nadella. I know Ive is a product designer, but I don't feel like he's a product user except maybe in the sense that he may vaporize rejected cases and snort aluminum dust.

If Tim could defer to someone on product vision like he does on design to Ive, that'd be great. Maybe he does, but I don't see decisions that are clearly, say, Phil Schiller's, like I do Cook and Ive. Can I write in Hair Force One on the next shareholder's ballot?

John Willoughby – November 03, 2016 07:26AMReplyQuoteCyberdyne Systems Customer Support

It used to be pretty simple. Consumer or Pro. Desktop or laptop. Much easier to focus engineering and design purpose in those days. And you know, it could even apply to tablets and phones. But now everything has to be a fashion accessory or a design statement. Design statement being a codeword for thinner than the last version.

I get it. They have a platonic ideal that they're moving toward. As Phil said, the L shape is perfect and won't go away any time soon. I'm just disappointed that another ideal they seem to be aiming for is one size fits all, and unfortunately it isn't necessarily the size that fits the creatives they've been targeting since 1984. And if Macs aren't for creators, who are they for?

One saving grace may be Thunderbolt 3/USB-C becoming an industry standard to the point where external GPUs, etc are affordable.

If Apple is going to abdicate desktops, I wish they'd give the dying market to clones and milk the licensing cow. I know they're not into getting less integrated, though. Well, then, I look forward to an iOS I can create on.

It's so funny because just a few weeks ago, there was a big deal about how OS X is so much less expensive to support in enterprise. There are a lot of things in the MBP announcement that negatively affect that. First, there is the initial price bump, then there is the touch bar, which adds a layer of complexity completely separate from the OS, then you have the need to replace peripherals or add dongles. Adding dongles to do normal tasks means more calls when people lose/misplace their dongles. And you have to add the cost of supporting different platforms. OS X was so nice because you could be sure that your thunderbolt to ethernet to HDMI adapter in the conference room would work with every single device in the company! now, you will need to start adding extra dongles for the new MBPs, plus add new power adapters, etc.

I don't think at this point you need clones, but it would be nice if they had a virtualization license you could use. Being able to run OS X legally through VMWare / parallels, etc, I think would be enough for a lot of people.

I actually like USB-C as well. But how many times have we heard them say "this is peripheral standard that will allow you to get rid of USB"? There is actually some decent support for it from PC hardware vendors, so there is a chance it can take off more readily than Thunderbolt, etc. but how dumb was it to not have USB-C on the iPhone 7 knowing the MBP was right around the corner?